TEDxVailWomen comes to Edwards this week

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The Vail Symposium presents the third TEDxVailWomen event this Wednesday at the Colorado Mountain College campus in Edwards. Organized by Symposium Advisory Council member Kat Haber, the event features thought-provoking presentations by and for women.

"This is another outstanding group of women who will be presenting powerful ideas," said Haber, who has presented her own TED talks and has organized eight TED events in Vail and Homer, Alaska.

TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. Started as a four-day conference in California 26 years ago, TED has grown to support those world-changing ideas with multiple initiatives. In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TED has created a program called TEDx. TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience.

The TEDxVailWomen event is free and begins with live presentations from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m., followed by a dinner break and then a video streaming of this year's TEDxWomen event that happened in Washington, D.C. on Dec. 1. Live talks by outstanding local, regional, and nationally-known women as well as a guest speaker from Israel make this event exciting for anyone interested in sharing new, innovative ideas about the world and our place in it. The theme for this year's TEDxVailWomen is "The Space Between," a theme that will be addressed from many various perspectives.

From the space between conversation and action, lies a gap of provocative ideas and threads from previous conferences, focusing on how women are less likely to approach subjects from a black-or-white perspective, focusing instead on the gray area in between. There is a curiosity in wanting to explore what is in between extremes, to gain the big picture, and find the areas where we need more understanding and perhaps compromise.

"I see a Vail Valley where The Space Between connects women of each decade with original ideas in talks about technology, entertainment, and design," said Haber. "Think old time Chautauqua meets creative innovators meets a YouTube variety show meets global music."

'Transformative effect'

Featured speakers in the first half of TEDxVailWomen include: Shannon Galpin, founder of Mountain2Mountain; Susie Kincade, founder of the Women's Empowerment Workshop in Vail; Dr. Judith Landau, internationally-known neuro-psychiatrist from Edwards; Andrea Lo, the 26-year-old founder of Piggybackr.com; Sharon Shay Sloan, a community steward, council trainer, and rites of passage guide; Jammie Dummolt, senior at Red Canyon High School in Eagle, and a delegate for Girls Learn International; and Eliana Gilad, coming from Israel and founder of Voices of Eden, the healing magic of ancient music.

"The speakers are deep in rehearsal and the final tweaks are underway," said Haber. "There are a few surprises that will only be revealed on the day of and they are fantastic. You will want to stay until the very end of the show and not miss a minute."

The second half of the evening will be a video broadcast of this year's TEDxWomen event, hosted by Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues. This session brings together a singer, a comedian, a prosecutor, a photographer, and a poet, all of whom are exploring new ways of being and seeing.

"I've seen the transformative effect organizing a TEDx event can have on a small community," said Haber. "Organizing a TEDx event is like finding the tastiest morsels in our community with each tossing in what they can, including ideas, speakers, funders, performers, teachers, politicians, businesses, and citizens. The resulting soup nourishes attendees, jumbles us together in bold new ways, and provides a tasty adventure to synergize ideas into action."

Tracey Flower is the development and marketing associate for the Vail Symposium. She can be reached at tracey@vailsymposium.org.